Lee Sklar sets the record clear: 4 string? 5 string? pick? fingers? fretless?

[Spaghetti Lee]

I think your perception of his politics has colored how you perceive his playing. I hear a musician with a lot of inventiveness and melodicism. I also love his upper register fills. He would make a great Urban Gospel player. He also brings a lot of energy to what he does and is probably a great guy to have on the session or the road. My only criticism is that he is probably more of a “gear whore” than he admits, but I suspect a lot of his basses were either free or bought at deep discounts, and I am pretty sure he afford them so cool!

I don't care about his politics.

I now find he is perfect for what he is...a stand-in-the-back bland session guy with a bland blend-in tone playing bland basslines. Perfect.

I just didn't realize HOW bland until I heard him play along with those songs on his videos. He's not bad, but he's also not very precise; and, he's just so blah that I was astounded he's been so successful. He's like the human embodiment of an 80's keyboard programmed bassline. No personality.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I don't care about his politics.

I now find he is perfect for what he is...a stand-in-the-back bland session guy with a bland blend-in tone playing bland basslines. Perfect.

I just didn't realize HOW bland until I heard him play along with those songs on his videos. He's not bad, but he's also not very precise; and, he's just so blah that I was astounded he's been so successful. He's like the human embodiment of an 80's keyboard programmed bassline. No personality.

First of all, lots of Eighties keyboard bass was great music. I loved Khashif, David Frank or Teddy Riley. Stevie Winwood, and of course Stevie Wonder were great too. Sklar sounds great to my ears too. Hey, we are free to like what we like.

 

[Killing Floor]

Love his videos, they are joyful. But the mannequin gives me the willies.

 

[Skokiaan]

I liked his videos at first until he started whining like a teenager about facebook. He sounded desperate and it was embarrassing to look at the screen and see this old dude mope like a preteen who'd been grounded from using his x-box. Not a good look.

Apart from that I find his playing, his tone (ESPECIALLY his tone), and overall his basslines to be the epitome of studio session-guy blandness.

I can see why synths took over in his era. Just no pizazz whatsoever; the opposite of a player like Will Lee who always injected some personality, dynamics and tone to make him stand out a bit even when the point of being a session guy was to NOT stand out.

I liked Lee Sklar better when I didn't actually hear him talk or play.

That bland studio-session guy is possibly the most recorded bassist in history, and for good reason. If you listened to what he said, you'd know that he a song-based player. He's not there to show off what he can do, he's there to make the song sound good. This is why he's on 25,000 songs (or whatever it is) and is never out of work - even in the synth days (which never actually took over).

Sift through his videos. You'll see some pizzazz - when pizzazz is called for.

 

[Shaggai]

Love his videos, they are joyful. But the mannequin gives me the willies.

I was working in an attic and noted that there was fancy porcelain doll sitting on a small rocking chair. Almost got whiplash from looking back and forth from working on an air handler and looking to see if that doll/chair moved.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Lee might LOOK like Dusty Hill, but Dusty simply oozes style, tone, groove, grit, and uses a ton of distortion. Lee is the opposite of all that.

Lee oozes "playing for the song" like few others. Maybe you don't like the songs he's played on, or maybe you don't like that other people can be successful at their craft?

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Love his videos, they are joyful. But the mannequin gives me the willies.

Yes, the dummy is creepy, but the man is alone like Tom Hanks in the movie where he made friends with a volley ball.

I am also enjoying the remembrances he is presenting of Jeff Porcaro, and the recent video where he speaks of Warren Zevon. As an older person myself, I can indentify with his looking back and reminiscing.

 

[Skokiaan]

I think your perception of his politics has colored how you perceive his playing. I hear a musician with a lot of inventiveness and melodicism. I also love his upper register fills. He would make a great Urban Gospel player. He also brings a lot of energy to what he does and is probably a great guy to have on the session or the road. My only criticism is that he is probably more of a “gear whore” than he admits, but I suspect a lot of his basses were either free or bought at deep discounts, and I am pretty sure he afford them so cool!

He went through his gear in one of his videos. He really doesn't have that much. Three amps, maybe ten basses.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I was working in an attic and noted that there was fancy porcelain doll sitting on a small rocking chair. Almost got whiplash from looking back and forth from working on an air handler and looking to see if that doll/chair moved.

You’ve seen to many horror movies!

 

[Dr. Cheese]

He went through his gear in one of his videos. He really doesn't have that much. Three amps, maybe ten basses.

He then pulled out even more Dingwalls in later videos.

 

[Skokiaan]

He then pulled out even more Dingwalls in later videos.

I was including those in my estimate. I think he only showed one Dingwall in the gear video. He must have five or so. He mentioned a fretless yesterday, but we haven't seen it yet.

 

[jbhaugh]

He then pulled out even more Dingwalls in later videos.

It sounds from the videos that Sheldon Dingwall periodically gifts him basses in colors he thinks Lee will like.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I know Lee Sklar's recent quarantine videos have been posted here. He tells war stories, then plays along to a song he recorded, then ends with some kind words for the people who are necessary workers.

But this time rather than telling road stories, he mentioned how he reads the various bass forums and always scratches his head (his beard?) over the 4-string/5-string fights, etc. Here he talks about what matters. And plays along to Lawyers, Guns, & Money.

He’s awesome. Both as a musician and a human being. Have really enjoyed his YouTube videos over the last few weeks. All the great stories, the playing, even little gear things like I had never even considered using a subkick mic combined with a DI. Probably gonna try that soon.

As for the types of bass stuff I agree with him for the most part. I have 4 and 5 string basses and have owned 6 and 7 strings and enjoy them all. I mainly gig with 5 strings because just like him I don’t want to be switching out basses throughout the show. I like to make things easy for the soundguy. I normally bring 2 basses to gigs but the second bass is more of a just in case type thing. I never plan to play the second bass. It’s more so just to save the day if something catastrophic happens. Which for me has happened a few times over the years and it’s normally something as simple as an output jack going bad.

I do use wireless systems but I totally get where he’s coming from on that. Looking back even some of the wireless systems I had in the early 2000s weren’t very good compared to what I use now. I’ve never owned an 80s era wireless system but I can imagine they are no where near as good as the newest generation of 20hz-20k digital wirelesses and I actually like wireless for some reasons people don’t generally think to use them for. For example I’ve had a lot of bad luck with cables going bad and moving around on little local bar stages and cables becoming a tangled mess, then going bad because of things like me or a singer accidentally stepping on them constantly while playing on dark stages. For me it’s a solution for certain problems I realize a lot of people don’t have.

the talk about fretless and how it can take over the song I can agree with for the most part. I think there are a few exceptions. For example I like the band Intronaut. Their bassist always plays fretless but he’s so dead on a lot of the time you wouldn’t even realize he’s playing fretless. He doesn’t overly use vibrato or have that sea sickness type thing going on that a lot fretless players do and the bass isn’t overbearing in the mix. I really enjoy playing fretless but I don’t imagine it’ll ever become my main thing. For me it’s kind of like pedals, fretless is just another tool. A really fun one, but it’ll probably never be my main thing. I have a small little pedaltrain mini board with a three pedals I like. That’s it. I built one bigger board a few years back and found that for one I didn’t want to carry it but also that’s it’s kind of like people switching basses every song. It works for these huge bands like Muse and RATM stuff that I dig and have a lot of respect for because they have their own dedicated soundguys that know them front to back. But for example envelop filter pedals. Sure I think they sound rad. But every time I’ve ever heard anyone use an envelope filter at a show the mix gets all out of whack. So I dont use a ton of pedals. Really the majority of the time I really only use overdrive.

As for the fingers vs pick thing I’ve never understood it. It’s like political junkies on social media blindly defending their own “team” or something. Why not both? I’m a bit more comfortable playing with my fingers just because I’ve played that way a lot more throughout the years but I don’t see anything wrong with using a pick. There are a lot of great pick players. I don’t get why people get hung up on that stuff and how it becomes this I’m right, you’re wrong type of thing. I really think that sometimes people post the pick vs fingers stuff just goofing off though. Because I know I’m so sick of seeing that talked about.

anyways getting back on subject I highly recommend subscribing to Lee’s YouTube channel. Again great stories and I feel like I’m learning a lot from it especially when it comes to learning how to play lines that are fun to play while still serving the song. I think that’s an area where he is fantastic.

 

[bass151]

Wish I was bland like Lee Sklar!!! Might want to check out some stuff he did with some of the fusion cats. You probably wouldn't mind having his bank account either. Just sayin!

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I was including those in my estimate. I think he only showed one Dingwall in the gear video. He must have five or so. He mentioned a fretless yesterday, but we haven't seen it yet.

Even so, ten basses is a lot, even for a working musician. That said, can afford them, and he certainly puts his basses to good use.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

He’s awesome. Both as a musician and a human being. Have really enjoyed his YouTube videos over the last few weeks. All the great stories, the playing, even little gear things like I had never even considered using a subkick mic combined with a DI. Probably gonna try that soon.

As for the types of bass stuff I agree with him for the most part. I have 4 and 5 string basses and have owned 6 and 7 strings and enjoy them all. I mainly gig with 5 strings because just like him I don’t want to be switching out basses throughout the show. I like to make things easy for the soundguy. I normally bring 2 basses to gigs but the second bass is more of a just in case type thing. I never plan to play the second bass. It’s more so just to save the day if something catastrophic happens. Which for me has happened a few times over the years and it’s normally something as simple as an output jack going bad.

I do use wireless systems but I totally get where he’s coming from on that. Looking back even some of the wireless systems I had in the early 2000s weren’t very good compared to what I use now. I’ve never owned an 80s era wireless system but I can imagine they are no where near as good as the newest generation of 20hz-20k digital wirelesses and I actually like wireless for some reasons people don’t generally think to use them for. For example I’ve had a lot of bad luck with cables going bad and moving around on little local bar stages and cables becoming a tangled mess, then going bad because of things like me or a singer accidentally stepping on them constantly while playing on dark stages. For me it’s a solution for certain problems I realize a lot of people don’t have.

the talk about fretless and how it can take over the song I can agree with for the most part. I think there are a few exceptions. For example I like the band Intronaut. Their bassist always plays fretless but he’s so dead on a lot of the time you wouldn’t even realize he’s playing fretless. He doesn’t overly use vibrato or have that sea sickness type thing going on that a lot fretless players do and the bass isn’t overbearing in the mix. I really enjoy playing fretless but I don’t imagine it’ll ever become my main thing. For me it’s kind of like pedals, fretless is just another tool. A really fun one, but it’ll probably never be my main thing. I have a small little pedaltrain mini board with a three pedals I like. That’s it. I built one bigger board a few years back and found that for one I didn’t want to carry it but also that’s it’s kind of like people switching basses every song. It works for these huge bands like Muse and RATM stuff that I dig and have a lot of respect for because they have their own dedicated soundguys that know them front to back. But for example envelop filter pedals. Sure I think they sound rad. But every time I’ve ever heard anyone use an envelope filter at a show the mix gets all out of whack. So I dont use a ton of pedals. Really the majority of the time I really only use overdrive.

As for the fingers vs pick thing I’ve never understood it. It’s like political junkies on social media blindly defending their own “team” or something. Why not both? I’m a bit more comfortable playing with my fingers just because I’ve played that way a lot more throughout the years but I don’t see anything wrong with using a pick. There are a lot of great pick players. I don’t get why people get hung up on that stuff and how it becomes this I’m right, you’re wrong type of thing. I really think that sometimes people post the pick vs fingers stuff just goofing off though. Because I know I’m so sick of seeing that talked about.

anyways getting back on subject I highly recommend subscribing to Lee’s YouTube channel. Again great stories and I feel like I’m learning a lot from it especially when it comes to learning how to play lines that are fun to play while still serving the song. I think that’s an area where he is fantastic.

You make a great point about fretless. I play fretless a lot, but I am not constantly using mwah all of the time, and it does not distract from the song I am playing.

 

[40Hz]

I don't care about his politics.

I now find he is perfect for what he is...a stand-in-the-back bland session guy with a bland blend-in tone playing bland basslines. Perfect.

I just didn't realize HOW bland until I heard him play along with those songs on his videos. He's not bad, but he's also not very precise; and, he's just so blah that I was astounded he's been so successful. He's like the human embodiment of an 80's keyboard programmed bassline. No personality.

Seriously? Always fun listening to someone I’ve never heard - or heard of - dissing an acknowledged great in such a condescending manner. I’d love to hear you play. Got any links?

 

[Nephilymbass]

He then pulled out even more Dingwalls in later videos.

He went through his gear in one of his videos. He really doesn't have that much. Three amps, maybe ten basses.

Yeah I’ve noticed he has a few Dingwalls from watching the different videos. Seen a couple with different finishes. I get that there’s no real reason to show a bunch of the same type of bass though, other than maybe gloating or attracting criminals. Would like to see him break out his fretless though.

 

[diegom]

What's so special about Lee Sklar?

 

[Killing Floor]

I liked his videos at first until he started whining like a teenager about facebook. He sounded desperate and it was embarrassing to look at the screen and see this old dude mope like a preteen who'd been grounded from using his x-box. Not a good look.

Apart from that I find his playing, his tone (ESPECIALLY his tone), and overall his basslines to be the epitome of studio session-guy blandness.

I can see why synths took over in his era. Just no pizazz whatsoever; the opposite of a player like Will Lee who always injected some personality, dynamics and tone to make him stand out a bit even when the point of being a session guy was to NOT stand out.

I liked Lee Sklar better when I didn't actually hear him talk or play.

So you're saying nobody is making you watch more than one of his videos? Nobody is making you listen to his bass playing? (OK, probably can't avoid hearing his bass if you have a radio or know anybody who does) Instead of hacking at the most prolific and most recognized bassist in the world maybe tell us who is a better model for any aspiring bassist. Instead of taking shots at an inspirational legend maybe recommend who else is worthy of your admiration.